Facebook post causes rift between sheriff, church

The Bernalillo County Sheriff said he's no longer welcome at his place of worship.

“It's taken a toll on my entire family. We've been in that church for 10 years,” Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston said.

Houston said some elders at Legacy Church made that very clear during a meeting this week.

Houston said the ousting came after a Facebook post last week. The sheriff wrote on his page there was a “movement” within the church to unseat him as sheriff. He called it a betrayal.

The 20,000-person church is influential and supported the sheriff in the last election. Last week, after the posting became public, Target 7 spoke to Legacy Church Pastor Steve Smotherman about it.

“Well, I was shocked,” Smotherman said. “I was shocked with what Dan Houston put on his Facebook.”

That said, Smotherman said he indeed was no longer supporting the sheriff in his bid for reelection.

After that, the sheriff said church elders met with him and asked him to comply with three requested actions, before he’d be able to come back to church. He said he wouldn’t agree with one of those requests and everything fell apart.

“Well, that’s really not what was said. The issue was I needed to comply with the requests they were making of me, or I could not come back. I mean, that was clear,” Houston said.

Houston refused to reveal what those requests were.

Target 7 asked the sheriff if he regrets writing those words and putting them on the internet?

“That’s a hard question for me to answer,” he said after seconds of silence. “If it has offended people and hurt the church, I do, because that was not my intention.”

Now the sheriff’s finding a new place to pray, but said he’s not worried about what this could mean for his political career. He still plans to run for sheriff again, believing some at the church and the public still support him.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said Sunday it was "very alarmed" by reports of widespread doping by track and field athletes in major competitions including the Olympic Games and world championships.

"Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" opened to an estimated $56 million at the U.S. box office over the weekend. This total was the second-best "Mission: Impossible" opening ever, just missing out on the $57.8 mil...